21Marchмарта · 21-е марта
Жизнь мы знаем только здесь, в этом мире, и потому, если есть смысл в нашей жизни, то он должен быть здесь, в этом мире.
We know life only here, in this world, and so, if there is meaning in our life, it must be here, in this world.
1. Нет успокоения ни тому, кто живет для мирских целей среди людей, ни тому, кто живет для духовных целей один. Успокоение получает только тот, кто живет для служения богу среди людей.
1. There is no peace either for those who live for worldly ends among people or for those who live alone for spiritual ends. Peace comes only to those who live for the service of God among people.
2. Не желай смерти потому, что тебе тяжело жить. Вся тяжесть мира на плечах каждого нравственного существа заставляет его исполнять свое призвание. Единственное средство избавления от этой тяжести это — исполнение своего призвания. Тебя отпустят, только когда ты сделаешь назначенное тебе дело.
2. Do not wish for death because it is hard for you to live. The whole weight of the world on the shoulders of every moral being compels him to fulfill his calling. The only means of deliverance from this weight is the fulfillment of one’s calling. You will be released only when you have done the work appointed for you.
From Worship, in The Conduct of Life · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changed“Out of pusillanimity” becomes “because it is hard for you to live,” and the task becomes a calling: “to hold him to his task” becomes “compels him to fulfill his calling,” and “performance” “the fulfillment of one’s calling”; “known in all the worlds of God” is dropped.
Emerson’s own wordsYou shall not wish for death out of pusillanimity. The weight of the Universe is pressed down on the shoulders of each moral agent to hold him to his task. The only path of escape known in all the worlds of God is performance. You must do your work, before you shall be released.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Worship, in The Conduct of Life (1860), Toward the end of the essay, after 'How will death help them?'.
Four consecutive sentences, close in order and image. 'out of pusillanimity' becomes 'because life is hard for you' (потому, что тебе тяжело жить): Emerson names the wish as faint-heartedness, though his sentences before speak of men who suffer 'from politics, or bad neighbors, or from sickness'. 'to hold him to his task' becomes 'makes him fulfil his calling' (заставляет его исполнять свое призвание); 'The only path of escape known in all the worlds of God is performance' becomes 'The only means of release from this weight is the fulfilment of one's calling', without 'known in all the worlds of God'; 'You must do your work, before you shall be released' becomes 'You will be let go only when you have done the work appointed you'. No Russian of this essay is in the Jubilee list. The saved text is the Boston printing of 1871. No printable.
3. Жизнь истинная только в настоящем. То, что было, того уже нет, нет и того, что будет, — есть только то, что сейчас. И об том, чтобы сейчас жить хорошо, только об этом всеми силами души и надо стараться. Если люди учат тому, что в этой жизни надо жить для будущей жизни, не верьте им. Жизнь мы знаем и проживаем только эту. И потому все силы надо направить на то, чтобы эту жизнь — и не только всю эту жизнь, но всякий час этой жизни прожить как можно лучше.
3. True life is only in the present. What was is no more, nor is what will be — there is only what is now. And it is for this alone, to live well now, that we must strive with all the powers of the soul. If people teach that in this life we must live for the future life, do not believe them. The only life we know and live through is this one. And so all our powers must be directed toward living this life — and not only the whole of this life, but every hour of this life — as well as we possibly can.
4. Жизнь — не страдание и не наслаждение, а дело, которое мы обязаны делать и честно довести его до конца.
4. Life is neither suffering nor pleasure, but a task that we are bound to do and to carry honestly through to the end.
From Œuvres et correspondance inédites d'Alexis de Tocqueville, ed. Gustave de Beaumont · close to the original .
Original · FrenchTocqueville a laissé éparse dans ses manuscrits une pensée qui semble résumer à elle seule toute son existence : …
La vie n'est pas un plaisir, ni une douleur, mais …
… une affaire grave dont nous sommes chargés et qu'il …
… faut conduire et terminer à notre honneur.
Source text: archive.orgIn English · anonymous ('the translator of Napoleon's Correspondence with King Joseph'), 1862Life is neither a pleasure nor a pain, but a serious business, which it is our duty to carry through and to terminate with honor.
Source text: archive.orgRelated · Letter to Charles Stoffels, Philadelphia, 22 October 1831La vie n'est donc ni une excellente ni une très-mauvaise chose, mais, passez-moi l'expression, une chose médiocre participant des deux.
… ni un plaisir ni une douleur, c'est une affaire grave dont nous sommes chargés, et dont notre devoir est de nous acquitter le mieux possible.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Œuvres et correspondance inédites d'Alexis de Tocqueville, ed. Gustave de Beaumont (1861), t. I, p. 124, the close of Beaumont's Notice.
Tolstoy's sentence follows the form Beaumont printed at the end of his Notice (the scan breaks it at the guillemets that open each line of the quotation): «честно довести его до конца» is 'conduire et terminer à notre honneur', and the two nouns are swapped («не страдание и не наслаждение» for 'ni un plaisir, ni une douleur'). The thought comes from Tocqueville's letter of 22 October 1831 to Charles Stoffels, where the close is 'dont notre devoir est de nous acquitter le mieux possible'; the 1864 reprint of the Notice (Œuvres complètes, t. V, saved in sources/tocqueville-oeuvres-completes-5-1864/) says 'dans une de ses lettres' and refers to that letter, t. VII, p. 82.
5. Ты страдаешь, и тебе кажется, что ты не можешь жить так хорошо, как бы ты хотел, что ты легче сделал бы то, что считаешь должным, если бы жизнь твоя была другая. Познай же ту истину, что в этой жизни, в тех условиях, в которых ты сейчас, ты всегда можешь сделать то, что должно.
5. You suffer, and it seems to you that you cannot live as well as you would like, that you would more easily do what you think you ought to do if your life were different. Know, then, the truth that in this life, in the conditions in which you are now, you can always do what you ought.
From Sartor Resartus · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedCarlyle’s Ideal becomes duty: “here or nowhere is thy Ideal” becomes “in the conditions in which you are now, you can always do what you ought,” and the one who cries “to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create” becomes one who thinks he would do his duty more easily “if your life were different.”
After Carlyle’s own wordsThe Situation that has not its Duty, its Ideal, was never yet occupied by man. Yes here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, despicable Actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or nowhere is thy Ideal: work it out therefrom; and working, believe, live, be free.
O thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create, know this of a truth: the thing thou seekest is already with thee, 'here or nowhere,' couldst thou only see!
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Sartor Resartus (1833–34), Book II, ch. IX 'The Everlasting Yea', Book II, ch. IX, the paragraph on the Ideal and the Actual (the one that gave 2-29.5).
Signed 'after Carlyle': a free retelling of one paragraph. Carlyle's 'thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create' becomes the sufferer who thinks he 'would more easily do what he considers due if his life were different'; 'know this of a truth' is kept (Познай же ту истину); 'here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, despicable Actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or nowhere is thy Ideal' and 'The Situation that has not its Duty … was never yet occupied by man' become 'in this life, in the conditions in which you are now, you can always do what you ought' (ты всегда можешь сделать то, что должно). Carlyle's Ideal becomes duty. The Jubilee list names L. P. Nikiforov's Carlyle selection «Загадка сфинкса» (1900). No printable.
Здесь, в этом мире, место нашего служения, и потому на исполнение служения здесь и должны быть направлены все наши силы.
Here, in this world, is the place of our service, and so it is to the fulfillment of that service here that all our powers must be directed.
Translation note. The Russian italic is broken only at the commas; the English sets the line as one span.
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